Anyone who as looked for a job knows that a big part of getting a job is presentation at the job interview. And performance comes with practice. Theatre practices and exercises that go beyond that which is deemed “normal” in everyday life and enable us to take the meta-position toward presentations of self are “natural tools” for improving individual’s presentation and, thus, employability. Theatre enables us to see how one presents him/herself, to become aware of our body, voice, gestures, posture and thousands of other details – all of which can make or break the job interview. And being able to present yourself in front of an audience, in a fast changing format and in English language is an experience which develops personal skills, motivates and empowers participants for the labour market. This partnership for adult, non-formal education aims to achieve educational goals by use of theatre practices and the so-called pitching. The participants will be taught to “pitch” (present) themselves in a better way and to pitch their ideas (projects) that will be beneficial for integration and inclusion efforts in the EU. It is a fruitful and holistic partnership of NGO's, public cultural organisations, tertiary education institutions and organisations working with/for the unemployed. The project aims to host 7 educational theatre workshops with 84 participants from 6 countries, including people with disability and those with fewer opportunities, such as the unemployed youth, Roma or migrants. They will join the inclusive education, share methods of working in non-formal and formal education by means of theatre. The workshops will end with 7 Pitching Forums. These forums will serve as training and presentation grounds for participants and also as places for promotion of new project ideas about the EU inclusion. Coming up to the Pitching Forums, participants will take their place in an educational workshop where they will learn to present themselves and their ideas/projects in a more effective way - which will help their soft-skills and employability. Workshops will all be different, as every partner has a different method of work and sharing will improve both professional knowledge of the educators/ staff and motivate learners (especially those from risk groups). Methods range from drama-action model designed for a PhD to use of puppets and Theatre of the Crumb; invisible theatre and other methods used in exploration, learning and dissemination/ presentation of results; and they will include tools for project development and presentation. By participating in this project, participants from 6 Europe's countries will learn the skills of presentation (pitching) and their soft-- skills (social and civic competences, cultural awareness and expression, English language etc.) and then present their skills to the audience in a Pitching forum. In other words, they will significantly develop their transversal and presentational skills - all the while developing the human resources of involved partner organisations. All pitching forums will be recorded for archives and also broadcast live online - thus, enhancing the promotional, visibility and dissemination capacity of the project. Upon return to their home towns, the participants will give a follow-up presentation/workshop and present their new knowledge and experience in their local community. They will also use this opportunity to pitch their project for inclusion in the EU. As all partners have years of experience in the similar field of work, the project will have immediate impact on participants and also the audience and our beneficiaries (4000). It will raise their EU Key Competences and improve English, presentational and social skills and bring cultural awareness. Beside the immediate educational impact, the project will produce e-Manual, various printed materials (both educational and promotional), photo gallery, videos from all workshops, live broadcasts from Pitching Forums (free and open to anyone) - and all educational material will be shared on EPALE, SALTO, ENCC and VALOR platforms. In the long run, the project will be the start of the Theatre Pitching Forums Network which will be self-sustainable, include adult learners and promote active citizenship, inclusion of people with disability and other marginalized groups and citizens (Roma, unemployed, migrants) and serve as platforms of entrepreneurship: motivating individuals and sharing projects of interest for the whole Europe and employability of its citizens.
Theatre Pitching for Employment (THE PITCH) is an international Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership focused on sharing knowledge and practice of “pitching” between partner organisations from Croatia (Zagreb), Turkey (Antalya), Slovenia (Maribor), Poland (Krakow), and two from Greece (Thessaloniki and Athens). More precisely, it is a partnership of NGO's, public cultural organisations, tertiary education institutions, and organisations working with/for the unemployed, who have come together to share their knowledge and achieve their compatible educational goals through combining drama and inclusive practices with exciting presentation technique of "pitching". Pitching is one of the most important skills at the labour market (if not The crucial one) – as anyone who has looked for a job can attest for. Knowing how to present yourself (or your project) in a concise, confident and interesting way can make or break job interviews, crowdfunding opportunities, and project presentations. By having their educators join these workshops, partner organisations raise their human resources (by raising the self-esteem and soft- skills of their educators) and improve their and EU Key competences (especially social and civic competences, cultural awareness and expression, entrepreneurship, English language etc.). To achieve its educational and sharing goals, each of the partner organisations hosted one short-term learning, teaching, and training programmes (LTT, i.e. educational theatre pitching workshops). The educational process in these workshops gave pitching a little “twist”, in order to make it “real” -each of the workshops ended with a Pitching forum – a live pitching programme that was livestreamed online to a global audience of interested individuals. Pitching forums were run by local jury panels who gave the participants positive feedback on their pitch – which ensured competitive and fun educational environment for the participants. Feeling positive, participants pitched (presented) their project proposals for tackling some of explored topics of marginalised people at a labour market in Europe. As such, Pitching Forums were not only also sites of training for educators and marginalised groups, but also sites for promotion of creativity, EU and European values. In order to act inclusively, each partner made sure to address one of the local issues of marginalisation and discrimination at the labour market, and involved few members of the local marginalised groups in workshops – as local participants (mostly unemployed youth and people with disability). Regardless if they are local or international participants, participants’ feedback shows that joining THE PITCH workshops contributed to raising of their self-esteem, thought them new and useful skills (be it in their work as educators, or at the labour market). Participants learned how to use their body language and nonverbal communication and improve their pitch – effectively helping them in their educational work and/or at the labour market. Having to present their own projects in front of a live (online) audience, in a fast-changing format and in English language, was experience that developed their personal and professional skills and/or motivated them to join the labour market or even start their own business. Empowered by this experience, participants organised local presentations and workshops where they transferred their newly gained knowledge from international to local level. It must be said that this partnership was heavily influenced by force majeure circumstances since long before COVID-19, and it still managed to finish most of what was planned – empowering partner organisations additionally, supporting their future cooperation, and teaching them to be open to use of online education. In total, seven educational workshops (7 LTT) were held, where 112 participants (those on international mobilities and local participants), including participants with fewer opportunities (4) and participants with disability (7) got to learn pitching and not only learn but also act inclusively. Additionally, partners hosted three (3) transnational project meetings (TPM) intended for monitoring, planning, and management. This ensured continuous communication and monitoring, which proved to be crucial in these difficult times of COVID-19. Even though this partnership was held under difficult circumstances (force majeure caused problems since 2019: exit of the Polish partner, earthquakes in Croatia, and COVID-19), partners finished their plan and produced educational materials, e-Manuals (7) and e-Videos (7) from each of the workshops that are published, alongside recordings of livestreams of all Pitching Forums (7), and remain free open sources available at EU platforms (EPALE, SALTO, and VALOR platforms), and on partners’ websites and social media. Everyone who is interested can use them and pitch for Europe!